


run for your life

by seothsayers



Series: turn off the light [3]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Canon-Typical Violence, First Dates, Goth Donghyuck, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:42:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26799028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seothsayers/pseuds/seothsayers
Summary: It's just Yangyang's luck that his and Donghyuck's first date is ruined byzombiesof all things.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Liu Yang Yang
Series: turn off the light [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947721
Comments: 16
Kudos: 84





	run for your life

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from & inspired by kim petras' [there will be blood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nBQ8xv2oLY&ab_channel=KimPetras)
> 
> heads up: there's a little bit of gore towards the end

Donghyuck’s face is centimetres away from Yangyang’s when the screaming starts.

Their evening had been going well up until that point. They had ended up at the local bowling alley after much deliberation between Yangyang, Dejun and Guanheng about good first date ideas. Donghyuck hops out of Jaemin’s car in a loose silky shirt, ripped jeans and his signature chunky boots – all black, of course. 

“You look good.” Yangyang stutters. “Great. Perfect.” Donghyuck had just laughed.

Donghyuck excels at bowling, like he does everything else in life. He claps whenever Yangyang manages to hit a pin and hides his laughter behind his hands whenever Yangyang misses entirely – something that happens far too often for his liking. They split a bowl of fries between them, feet tangled together under the table whilst they talk about uni, their friends, their upcoming plans. They’d known each other for so long now, almost two years, that the conversation came naturally, but there was an undercurrent of something else there. A heady tension that was growing stronger every time Donghyuck looked up at Yangyang from under his eyelashes, or when their fingers brushed as they both moved to grab another french fry. 

They move onto the arcade when they are finished eating where Yangyang manages to redeem himself by winning Donghyuck a fluffy bear from one of the claw machines. Donghyuck wins Yangyang a cheap keychain but he cherishes it, clipping it onto one of his belt loops. They leave the bowling alley holding hands.

“Tonight was really fun,” Donghyuck says, squeezing Yangyang’s hand lightly. “I’d give it a solid nine out of ten.”

“Nine?” Yangyang repeats. “I thought it was a ten.”

“It needs to be a nine because I’m planning our next date and that one needs to be a ten out of ten to convince you to go on a third date with me,” Donghyuck explains.

“Oh.” Yangyang laughs. “I don’t think you’ll have to convince me very hard.”

“I’ll pull out all the stops anyway.” Donghyuck shrugs. “I like the challenge.”

“I look forward to it.” Yangyang smiles.

Donghyuck leans in then – this close the subtle purple shimmer on his eyelids makes him look even prettier. It matches his hair too, dyed a deep plum colour. “How do you feel about kissing on the first date?” Donghyuck asks, eyes flickering down to Yangyang’s lips.

Yangyang doesn’t get to answer. The scream makes them both jump. Yangyang looks around with a frown but no-one comes rushing out of the darkness, no-one shouts for help. “That was strange.” He says.

“Yeah.” Donghyuck shakes his head and opens his mouth to speak again but then – a second strangled scream. “Okay. Something seriously weird is going on.”

“Should we go find them?” Yangyang asks with a frown. “Maybe we should phone someone.”

“Whatever we do, we stick together,” Donghyuck says. “I’m not particularly in the mood to get killed by an axe murderer before I even got the chance to kiss you.”

Yangyang laughs at that. “Come on.”

They walk together down the street, towards the direction from which the sound came from. There was a park at the end of the road, dimly lit by the streetlights. “Do you think that’s where it came from?” Yangyang asks.

“Only one way to find out,” Donghyuck says.

They walk through the park slowly. Yangyang can’t help but shiver – a mixture of the chill in the air and the anticipation of not knowing what awaited them. “I think…” Donghyuck narrows his eyes and points towards the children’s playground. “Are there people over there?”

They walk closer. It’s definitely a group of people – three standing whilst one lies on the floor between them. The one on the floor seemed to be writhing about in pain, but the others weren’t doing anything to help.

“Hey!” Yangyang shouts out. Donghyuck clutches tighter to his arm. “Are you guys alright?”

The heads of the three figures standing all snap up in their direction. They don’t respond, but they don’t look away either.

“That’s creepy,” Donghyuck mutters. 

“Yeah.” Yangyang says. He projects his voice. “Do you need us to call anyone?”

There is a low groan that sends a chill running down his spine. Donghyuck’s grip on his hand is painful now, and he tugs Yangyang backwards when one of the figures takes a step in their direction. They walk slowly, like they are dragging their feet along the floor. They reach the gate of the playground and the light from the streetlamp finally hits their face.

“Oh my god.” Donghyuck gasps.

There is an entire chunk of skin missing from the person’s face, their eyes sunken and hollow in their head. Black goo drips out of their mouth and down their chin, staining their already gross torn clothes. One of the arms is twisted in a way that shouldn’t be humanly possible. 

Yangyang pinches himself. He winces when his nails dig into his skin. Definitely not a dream.

“This is impossible,” He says. “If that’s what I think it is…”

“We need to get out of here,” Donghyuck says. “I’ll phone Jaemin, he said he was going to pick us up.”

Yangyang starts to walk slowly backwards as Donghyuck pulls his phone out his pocket. Jaemin answers pretty quickly, and Yangyang can hear the tinny sound of his voice as he asks, “You want me to pick you up already?” Jaemin asks. “I thought you would be out later than this.”

“I need you to come get us immediately,” Donghyuck tells him. They’re moving faster now, eyes still trained on the figures in the playground. The one on the floor had stopped moving, but Yangyang could see the fingers twitching even from this distance. The other two had joined the third figure at the gate, heads all tilted to the right, all three letting out guttural groans.

“What’s wrong?” Jaemin asks.

“You’re not going to fucking believe me,” Donghyuck laughs. 

“Try me.”

“We’re at the park just down the road from the bowling alley and there are three – make that four  _ zombies _ watching us.” Yangyang feels sick as he watches the fourth figure slowly climb to its feet, shuffling over towards the other three. 

“Zombies.” Jaemin repeats.

“I’m not fucking joking!” Donghyuck yells.

The shout makes the zombies start moving, pushing through the gate of the playground one by one.

“Oh shit.” Yangyang mutters. “We need to move faster.”

“I’m on my way,” Jaemin says. “Just… stay near the park, okay? I’ll come find you.”

Donghyuck hangs up and shoves his phone into his pocket. They hurry across the park until they are back on the street. The zombies are moving slow enough that it would be a while before they would reach them, a relief really considering they had no idea if these four were the extent of the problem or whether there were others out there.

“I don’t understand how this happened,” Donghyuck says. “Where did they come from?”

“In films it’s always like an ancient disease or something, right? They always said climate change was going to release whatever was hidden in the ice.” Yangyang says. 

“We’re nowhere near the Arctic though,” Donghyuck points out. “So how the fuck did it end up here?”

“I never claimed to be smart,” Yangyang says and Donghyuck snorts.

“I feel like we’re sitting ducks just standing around like this,” Donghyuck sighs.

“Yeah.” Yangyang narrows his eyes. “I think they’ve stopped moving though.”

The four zombies were stood around in a circle now. The horrid, low groan still persisted, but it looked like they were just… talking to each other. He turns to Donghyuck only to see another zombie stood less than a few feet away from them, mouth open, black bile spilling out down its chin.

Yangyang tugs Donghyuck out of the way just as it lunges for them and they both scream. Yangyang feels like his heart is seconds away from beating out of his chest. The zombie staggers when it fails to grasp onto one of them, but stays on its feet and steadies itself, taking another step forward. 

“We need to go.” Yangyang tugs on Donghyuck’s arm. 

“Jaemin told us to wait here,” Donghyuck says. 

“You said it yourself, we’re like sitting ducks.” Yangyang says. “We don’t have anything to defend ourselves with. We don’t have to go far, we just have to go. We are not dying tonight.” 

Donghyuck lets Yangyang pull him further down the street. There is a screech as a car comes speeding around the corner. “Oh thank fuck.” Donghyuck mutters. 

Jaemin stops beside them, gesturing for them to hurry inside. “You’ll never guess what I just saw.” He says, eyes wide.

“Was it a fucking zombie? Because our total is at five right now.” Donghyuck responds.

“I won’t lie, I thought you were joking. I was like hey, maybe you just had a really good time and had one too many drinks or something but shit, Hyuck, it’s not looking good out there.” Jaemin locks the doors once they are safely inside.

“What do you mean?” Yangyang asks from the backseat. “How bad is it?”

“Let’s just say I accidentally drove through a crowd of them.” Jaemin shudders. “They’re ugly up close.”

“Let’s just go home.” Donghyuck says. “I’ll feel safer when we’re three flights of stairs up and behind a bolted door.” 

Jaemin floors it. Yangyang scrambles to put on his seatbelt as Jaemin spins the car around and speeds away. “Don’t judge me,” Jaemin says, looking at Yangyang through the rear view mirror. “I’m normally a safe driver but I’m a teeny tiny bit anxious right now.”

“As long as we get back to your place in one piece, it’s all good,” Yangyang tells him.

As they move through the streets, Yangyang can see what Jaemin means. In the dark it is hard to see them at first, but then he sees a pair of zombies emerging from a 24 hour convenience store, black goo spilling from their mouths, and there are bodies all over the ground, some still but others twitching with unnatural life. 

Thankfully, Jaemin and Donghyuck’s place isn’t too far away and they get there quickly. They all rush out the car and towards the door of the apartment building. Jaemin leads, and Donghyuck is right on Yangyang’s heels. They push through the door and Donghyuck turns to shut it behind them when a zombie lurches forward from the bushes and grabs onto his ankle.

Donghyuck screams. Yangyang watches in horror as the zombie opens its mouth to take a bite but then –

There is a sickening crunch as he watches Donghyuck stomp down on the zombie’s head with his other foot. Behind him Jaemin gags as Donghyuck lifts his foot away, the bottom of his shoe covered in brain gunk and chunks of flesh.

“Fucking love these shoes,” Donghyuck sounds half-way between laughter and tears, and he lets Yangyang pull him fully inside, locking the door behind them.

The ride the lift up to the third floor in silence, Donghyuck subtly trying to wipe the slime from his shoe off on the floor. Jaemin looks two seconds away from throwing up and Yangyang doesn’t blame him. He reaches over to take Donghyuck’s hand in his own, stopping him from staring at the mess on the floor. Donghyuck smiles and Yangyang smiles back, and for just a second things feel normal.

Then the lift doors are opening. Renjun and Jeno are stood on the other side and there is palpable relief in their eyes as they rush forward to pull Jaemin and Donghyuck into hugs. 

“Thank god you’re all safe,” Renjun lets go of Donghyuck to pull Yangyang into his arms, squeezing him tight. “Come on, let’s get you all inside.”

Yangyang feels the tension leave him as time passes. The front door is locked and Jeno pushes a small bookcase in front of it. Renjun makes them all tea whilst Donghyuck scrubs his boots in the bathroom sink. Jaemin talks about what he saw on his way to pick them up, curled up against Jeno’s side, and Yangyang retells the events of the evening from their perspective. 

“Mark said he and Yukhei are going to try and stop by tomorrow, depending on what it’s like out there,” Jeno says. “This is so weird though. How did it even start?”

Yangyang checks his phone and sees over a dozen missed calls from his housemates and so he slips into Donghyuck’s room to phone them back and let them know he’s safe. Dejun sounds sick with worry and Yangyang feels a little guilty but the last thing on his mind had been to check his phone when he was running for his life. 

Just as he is wrapping up the call, Donghyuck walks into the room with two glasses of water. He sets them down on the bedside table and sits down beside Yangyang as he waits for him to finish, sliding his hand into Yangyang’s. He’s ready for bed, changed out of his fancy outfit from earlier into comfier clothes and there is just a hint of glitter left on his eyelids. He looks soft, but tired. No – exhausted. Yangyang felt it too.

“Everyone safe?” Donghyuck asks.

“Yeah.” Yangyang sighs. “What a fucking night.”

Donghyuck laughs softly. “Yeah. Come on, get changed. I have some pyjamas you can borrow.”

Yangyang ends up in one of Donghyuck’s tattered old band t-shirts and a pair of flannel bottoms and the two of them squeeze into Donghyuck’s single bed, lying face to face in the dark. The teddy bear Yangyang had won Donghyuck earlier is squashed in between them, having successfully made it through the past few hours. It's a bit of a grim souvenir, when he thinks about it. Yangyang will never be able to look at the bear again without remembering what happened tonight.

“Well, there is one good thing that happened tonight,” Donghyuck says, voice quiet as he reaches over to brush Yangyang’s fringe from his eyes.

“What’s that?” Yangyang asks.

“We didn’t get killed by an axe murderer like I thought we were gunna,” Donghyuck says, and Yangyang snorts. “I still have to make good on my promise of kissing you though. I got kiss-blocked by zombies way too many times tonight.”

“Then kiss me Lee Donghyuck,” Yangyang tells him.

It’s sweet and soft, everything that Yangyang dreamed his first kiss with Donghyuck would be like. Donghyuck grips onto the front of Yangyang’s shirt and pulls him closer, and Yangyang brings a hand up to hold Donghyuck’s head, losing himself in the kiss because this moment is everything. It’s hard to think about anything – about zombies, about what will happen tomorrow – when Donghyuck’s lips are pressed against his.

“I thought of another good thing,” Donghyuck says after he pulls away.

“What?” Yangyang asks. He’s too distracted by Donghyuck’s lips, inching forward to try and kiss him again.

Donghyuck grins, pressing his fingers to Yangyang’s lips to stop him. “We actually got to go on our date. Imagine if you had waited any longer, we might have both died before we could confess.”

“That’s fucking morbid,” Yangyang tells him. “But you’re right. Not really sure how you’re going to make the second date ten out of ten when we’re stuck in here though.”

Donghyuck raises an eyebrow. “That sounds like a challenge I’m happy to accept. What do you say to date number two, tomorrow morning at the dining table? There may or may not be pancakes involved.”

“It sounds perfect,” Yangyang says. “Can I kiss you again now?”

Donghyuck laughs. “You can kiss me as much as you like. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Maybe their date is not completely ruined after all.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/seothsayers)


End file.
